CyberGarden is an ongoing research project developed by Ecologic Studio. This project represents the 4th iteration and exists as a multilayered, intelligent system that passes information between these layers via material, electronic and biological information. It utilizes a network of radiation sensors and connected to custom designed and programmed robotic arms and a parametric digital model. The physical prototype and digital model engage in a generative dialogue and co-evolve over the course of each exhibition. The petri dish components are made of translucent perspex and when added to the physical model cause a change in the lighting filed. This in turn will affect the digital plan and triggers the emergence of other gardening components to be designed, cut and added on.

Translator II: Grower is a small 'rover' vehicle which navigates around the periphery of a room. It hugs the room’s walls and responds to the carbon dioxide levels in the air by actually drawing varying heights of 'grass' on the walls in green ink. The Grower robot senses the carbon dioxide (CO2) level in the air via a small digital CO2 sensor. This sensor is mounted high on a wall of the exhibition space and sends data wirelessly to the robot. The number of people in an exhibit space breathing in oxygen and exhaling CO2 has an immediate effect on the sensor. My robot takes a reading of the CO2 level every few seconds and in response it draws a vertical line in green ink on the wall. The line height pertains directly to the level of CO2 (and therefore also the people traffic) in the space. The more CO2, the higher the line is drawn - the maximum height being 1ft. Once Grower completes a line, it moves forward several millimeters and repeats the process.

Future Cities Lab’s HYDRAMAX Port Machines project proposes a radical rethinking of San Francisco’s urban waterfront post sea-level rise. The proposal renders the existing hard edges of the waterfront as new “soft systems” that would include aquatic parks, community gardens, wildlife refuges and aquaponic farms. A synthetic architecture is introduced that blurs the distinction between building, landscape, infrastructure and machine. Using thousands of sensors and motorized components, the massive urban scale robotic structure harvests rainwater and fog, while modulating air flow, solar exposure and intelligent building systems.

The lumiBots are small, autonomous robots that react to light. They can leave glowing traces which slowly fade away, so that older, darker trails are visible as well as newer, brighter ones. This way, generative images that consistently change are generated. They are appealing just for the glow effect, but also have a deeper meaning for the robots: They can follow the lines with their light sensors, and amplify them whilst preferring brighter (newer) and broader (more often used) trails.

This project is an exploration of the use of rhinoscripting – specifically in terms of data interpretation. The script takes data from a GPS, heart rate monitor, and stopwatch. During a 12 mile run, I tracked my heart rate, pace, latitude/longitude and elevation. This data was then interpreted by the script – generating a form that visualizes the relationship of the data to one another.

The curtain integrates an efficient organic living carbon sink into an interior space.
The curtain produces an amount of oxygen equivalent to a mature broad leaved tree – it is a dramatically enhanced house plant. The curtain is composed of an array of algae bioreactors. A network of indoor air, power and nutrient supply lines weave the bioreactors into a single membrane. The nutrients are supplied by the building’s waste water. The curtain is nourished by the CO2 from the exhalation of the inhabitants. It is directly responsive to the users and the environment; each module operates autonomously and sensors activate select modules as appropriate to the changing levels of CO2 within a space. The modules then expand and contract with circulating air revealing a mechanic-organic organism that is continuously refreshing the air.

For the Sevilla Biennale I worked with Ecologic Studio to implement a layer of electronic intelligence and monitoring to augment their systems of biological response for StemCloud.
The basic variables in the system were Water + Nutrients + CO2. The CO2 was to be provided by the visitors by blowing into the tubes. The goal for the monitoring system was to track the amount of interaction (and thus CO2) units were receiving, save this to a database to compare to the other variables over time, and reflect this through the intensity of the LEDs such that units which had received less CO2 would glow brighter to attract attention.

Virtual Mirror - Rain is a spatial intervention which senses the rain falling outside, and then literarily mirrors it inside the building in its original form - water. Every time a raindrop falls on a rain sensor outside, the same raindrop is being synthesized and reflected back to the sky from the floor inside. The installation makes the rain “fall up” inside.
In addition to the rain sensors outside, there is one rain sensor installed in the middle of the installation indoors. By dripping water drops on it, the visitors are able to interact with the installation and to activate the drops to fall up from the floor into the sky.

Xeromax Envelope is a quarter-scale experiment for a responsive building envelope calibrated and tuned to its environment. Part robotic structure, part experimental interface, and part microclimatic machine it registers energy cycles and interactions over time while harvesting solar energy and protecting the building from the local climate. Xeromax Envelope is proposed as a second-skin to an existing building and becomes a register of present and forecasted conditions. The model weaves ultra thin custom actuators, arrays of light and proximity sensors through the extent of the surface which transforms as it registers the changing conditions around it.